Noah Caldwell, a 14-year-old from Covington, Tenn., visits the TVA power operations center Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Caldwell’s visit to the operations center was one of several TVA locations he toured to grant his request to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Disney World is the destination typically chosen by kids with life-threatening illnesses whose families get a trip, or “experience,” courtesy of Chattanooga-based Make-A-Wish East Tennessee.
Noah Caldwell was the first to want to see how the Tennessee Valley Authority makes and distributes electricity.
“It’s way better than Disney World,” the 14-year-old said Thursday morning. “I loved it.”
Tori Lester, a business service representative with TVA in Jackson, Tenn., talks to 14-year-old Noah Caldwell, from Covington, Tenn., as he visits the TVA power operations center Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Caldwell’s visit to the operations center was one of several TVA locations he toured to grant his request to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. 
Private duty nurse Rebecca Laing pushes 14-year-old Noah Caldwell, from Covington, Tenn., in his wheelchair as he visits the TVA power operations center Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. At left is Caldwell’s mother, Shannon Leach. Caldwell’s visit to the operations center was one of several TVA locations he toured to grant his request to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. That was right after Caldwell toured TVA’s System Operations Center, the high-security underground room in the agency’s downtown Chattanooga office complex where employees watch banks of computer monitors and schematic diagrams to balance the supply and demand of electricity across TVA’s seven-state service area.
Caldwell, who came to Chattanooga on Monday with his family from Covington, Tenn., near Memphis, had previously toured TVA’s Chickamauga Dam, Sequoyah Nuclear Plant and the Raccoon Mountain Pumped-Storage Plant.